Virus
by Maybe I'm a Kinkajou
Summary: Another nuzlocke, AU with a female OC. A mysterious is ravaging Kanto, leaving behind no survivors, except for the monsters that lurk in nightmares. Rated M for gratuitous violence, swearing, and any possible squicky sexual encounters that I forgot about.
1. What a Beautiful Day

(I have no idea why I'm uploading my old Nuzlocke, but here it goes. This is a playthrough of a Pokemon: Leaf Green hack called Sea Green. Difficulty is higher and encounters are changed, that's it, it was just to make an otherwise vanilla Nuzlocke more interesting.

Rules:

1. Fainting=death.

2. One encounter per route.

3. Pokemon boxes cannot be used-only six Pokemon at a time.

This is also written from a first-person perspective, so if that isn't your thing, that's cool.

Onwards!)

All of you have had this day. It's sunny, not a hot sunny but a perfectly warm sunny with a breeze that makes your skin tingle with "I am alive and I love it." There's the perfect amount of fluffy clouds in a vibrant blue sky, birds chirping, and there's a general feeling of possibility in the air. That was how the day was when this began.

People always seem to think horror stories happen on a dark and stormy night with Galvantulas and rain, but this wasn't it.

It was a beautiful day in Pallet Town, perfect for barbeques and croquet. There was nothing quite like it and there hasn't been anything like it since. I think it was Arceus's way of saying "lol sorry for the shitstorm that's about to come up, but at least it's a fucking gorgeous day for it. Save me a weenie, with mustard."

The guy came into town in the morning, an uncle of one of the families there. No one paid attention to him, that kind of stuff was status quo-Pallet Town was a great place to be from and lots of people came back to it. I definitely didn't pay attention to him, just another returning vagabond. Why should I? I'm Kinky. I'm the goddamn Kanto League Champion. I was the first person to beat the league with a Venomoth. My Quagsire is banned for choking an Alakazam to death. I am the very best, and I was leaving that day to go to Hoenn and violate whatever they had for a Pokemon League. I had sent off my Pokemon a few days prior over the link Celio made to Hoenn. This was my last stop, just to say goodbye to Oak and my family. I was saying goodbye alright. Goodbye, Mom. Goodbye, Professor Oak. Goodbye, Pallet Town.

Goodbye, normalcy.

The guy had gone into his family's house. No one had noticed anything about him until it was too late. Someone had to have heard the screams…that's how it spread.

I was in Oak's lab, chatting it up and saying my last goodbye. Mom had overloaded me with goodies and stuff for the trip out, and I was just waiting for her to touch up her eyebrows or whatever she thought looked like a Wobbuffet's ass.

"Hoenn will treat you well, Kinky," Oak said, beaming. "I've already sent word to Birch, and he sent this over the express. It's a new device that's all the rage over there." Oak handed me a thing that looked like a watch. "Kinky, this is a Poketch. It'll help us keep in touch while you're gone; you have to tell me about the species of Pokemon there."

"Don't worry, I'm going to bore you to tears with information, Professor."

Oak didn't answer me, his eyes had centered on something outside. He was turning pale; I turned and looked to the window.

Kanto has a strict anti-gun policy, which explains why people train Pokemon for home defense and nefarious purposes. Only Unovans and crazy redneck Sinnohese would prefer a gun over a well-trained Persian or Fearow. If you told me that I would want something other than a Pokemon for protection, I would have laughed. No one could have foreseen a reason to actually kill someone.

Not until today.

"Kinky, catch!" Oak tossed me a Pokeball, I could almost feel whatever was inside shaking.

"Oak, what the hell is that outside?" I had never seen anything like that. It was large, covered in a sparse amount of purple hair, buck teeth covered in blood. It was like a Rattata, in theory and shape, but anyone would know it wasn't. This couldn't be a Rattata, Rattatas weren't that large or that vicious. They didn't rip into people like a fat kid eating Poffins.

They certainly didn't run around with shreds of clothing on their backs.

Another one erupted from the house, then another, and another smaller one. They were chasing people as they ran inside their homes for some semblance of protection. My mom stepped out of her door just then, face-to-face with a Rattata-beast. She ran back in-it followed.

I flew out of that lab, Oak's warnings pushed off by the breeze.

"MOM!" I gripped the Pokeball tightly, almost sliding into the doorway from my moment, just in time to see the Rattata-beast's teeth start to glow, my mom cowering on the stairs. I mashed the button on the Pokeball and chucked it at the beast.

A dazed Shroomish popped out. The Rattata-beast's teeth bore in my mom's chest, a hyper fang propelled attack.  
She didn't live...that's all I want to say. I was horrified then, but now I'm grateful. Now I know what would've happened. Then? I saw my mom being made into hamburger, and all I had to fight with was a pathetic Shroomish. That Shroomish was going to learn murder, and learn it quickly.

The beast was turning to us, its deadly bite finished. This one was smaller, and looked younger. Its features were shaped like a Rattata, buck teeth and budding claws, but the eyes…the eyes drilled into mine. They weren't the eyes of an animal: They were blue, with round black pupils. Human eyes...had it been human? Whatever this was now, it was going to die.

"Shroomish. Absorb."

The little Shroomish stopped shaking, glowing with a green light. The beast glowed the same, its life juices going into the moving mushroom at my feet. The beast gasped, growling as its very essence was drained. It staggered towards us, slobbering out a strange noise that sounded half like a snarl and half like words.

"SHROOMISH, ABSORB!" I pushed it with my foot. "Don't stop until it drops dead or you do!"

It was a battle of will. The Shroomish glowed, squealing a little from exertion, while the beast inched closer, growing weaker and weaker with each step. It was at the Shroomish, teeth glowing with a Hyper Fang about to unleash. Its foot faltered, its eyes bulged, and with a final gurgle of blood it dropped to the floor. Shroomish fell backwards, green sludge pouring out of its mouth. I picked it up and it looked at me, bleary but alive.

"Shroom?" I cradled it as everything around me started fading. I saw it, but I didn't _see _it; I held the Shroomish, but I didn't feel it. I heard the screams, but I didn't care. This was Hell. This had to be Hell.

Oak shook my shoulder. "Kinky?" He took me by the shoulder and guided me out. There were scattered beasts around me, scattered body parts, scattered lives.

The sun was shining. The breeze came through. It was perfectly warm. It was beautiful day, and Pallet Town will never see another day like it again.

(Just in case anyone cares, the starters were changed too. The starters are: Shroomish, Staryu, and Houndoor. First time I played the game I used Houndoor, so I flipped a coin and got Shroomish. Also: The character is technically from a crappy screenshot based Nuzlocke I did. That really won't affect your reading of the story and tbqh I think I was drunk when I decided to reuse the character. Oh well, reviews are cool!)


	2. How to Catch a Pokemon

(If you're still reading, I've accomplished something.)

.

We got the hell out of there. There were no ceremonies, no eulogy, just me, Oak, and his two surviving attendants and their Pokemon. And of course my little Shroomish that I called Kali. Dumb as a box of rocks, but she (Oak showed me how to identify the sex of a Shroomish, it's not pretty) would rashly charge in without hesitation. She wasn't a Quagsire or a Venomoth, but she started to grow on me. Like fungus.

We were heading to Viridian, as if the answers to what happened in Pallet Town were located there, as though anything born of the sane, rational world I once knew could explain mutated Rattata-man-what-the-fucks. The beasts weren't the abnormal part—no, my mind could comprehend that madness for some reason—it was the otherwise nice day outside that just astounded me. As we walked, the air was filled with Pidgeys and their signature "pi pi pi pi" song. The Pidgeys didn't know anything was wrong, and if they did, they didn't care. They just "pipipipipipipi" and that's it. Their stupid song pushed past me as I walked with Oak, an opposing current to the silence of Pallet Town behind us.

"Goddamn Pidgeys…" I clenched my fist, wanting to pound reality into them. What right did they have to sing and be happy? Didn't they know? Didn't anyone know?

"Goddamn PIDGEYS!" I scooped up a rock, seeing one in the tree. "Don't you fucking know that the world is ending? Shut up!" I hurled the rock, and the Pidgey disappeared in a cloud of light. The Pokeball dropped to the ground, inside it one lucky Pidgey saved from a meteor smash.

"Kinky," Oak's voice was stern as he picked up the Pokeball. "The Pidgeys are being Pidgeys. They don't know you from Red." He handed me the Pokeball. "I think you need to remember your humanity in the light of this...event."

Pecks the Pidgey was more careful after that.

We entered Viridian that evening. Much to my relief, there were no dead bodies or anything strewed in the streets. In fact, there were no people in the street. Period. Junk was scattered about like there had been a…something. This definitely wasn't right.

"Professor-"

"I know," Oak interrupted, taking out one of his Pokemon. "I'm going to go into the Pokemon Center. Kinky, you stay here. Aspen, Spruce, come with me."

Oak and his aides left. I looked around the town, the uneasy feeling growing by the minute. I pressed the button on Pecks's Pokeball, and he appeared on my shoulder. "Pi?"

"Here boy, let me heal you up." I dug a Potion out of my backpack that I rescued before leaving Pallet Town, gingerly putting the spout up against his neck and pulling the trigger. Pecks squawked as the needle punctured his skin.

"It's okay boy, you'll get used to it." I ruffled his feathers. I had this...call it intuition or whatever, but I knew I would need him. It was a little dark, the twilight making everything blurry. If it was daylight, what happened next would've scarred me forever. As if what I had already been through hadn't done it.

"Heeeeyyyyy…kid!" This guy's voice sounded like his mouth was full of grapes, it was slobbered and kind of muffled. "Kid, c'mere!"

I squinted and saw a guy lying on the ground. I didn't remember him before, but a survivor! Yay! I rushed over. "You're alive! Old man, you can't be laying out here!"

"Kid…know how to caaatch a PoKEmON?" The guy sounded high, and he started coughing. A lot. I felt something thick and sticky hit my leg, and I flicked on my flashlight to look at it. It was white, and stringy, like something you would see a Weedle make.

"…oh my god." I shone my flashlight on the man, and screamed at what I saw. His mouth was human, framed by a thick beard, but there were mandibles lodged in it. Like a Weedle. His eyes bulged out of his skull, the pupils taking over most of his eyes. I started to back away slowly.

"Don't goo…you need to know hooow to catch a POkemoN!" He crawled towards me, not like a baby, but like an inchworm.

"Pecks! Peck it!" Pecks flew off my shoulder and on the guy's back, pecking it ferociously as I ran back to the Pokemon Center. "Professor! Come quick! You need to see this!"

Oak was just coming out as I was yelling for him, and he followed me back over, just in time to see Pecks drill his beak into the guy's buggy eyes, the guy trying to snap at the Pidgey with his buggy mouth.

"Oh Arceus…Kinky, recall your Pidgey!" His Charizard appeared as my Pidgey returned. "Mulciber, use Slash!"

The bug-guy's head was cleanly severed at the neck. Oak's Charizard sniffed it and recoiled, growling at it. "Yes, Mulciber, you would do well to stay away from it, it's bad." One of Oak's aides collected the guy's blood in a vial.

"Kinky, did you get anything from that guy on you? Anything at all?

"Umm…he spat on me."

"Oh Arceus…where?" Oak's voice was heavy and fearful.

"Just on my leg…it's like Weedle silk." Oak bent down to my leg, collecting a sample of the silk, and then he pulled out a bottle of something that burned like hell when he scrubbed my leg with it.

"Oak, this guy has a Pokeball on him!" One of the aides came over.

"Release the Pokemon in it, I want to see what it is. Mulciber, if it tries to attack, use Slash on it."

A Weedle came out, and it barely saw us before it lunged at us, stopped immediately by a quick Slash from the Charizard. Both pieces of it fell to the ground, and…I swear a foamy substance leaked from its mandibles. Oak's mouth thinned.

"Did you find any other marks on the guy besides the Pidgey pecks?"

"Yes, professor," The other aide replied. "It was on what was left of his leg. It…it looked like a bite mark though, not a sting."

"That's what I was afraid of…" Oak took a sample from the Weedle, and packed up his case.

"Kinky...when I was in the Pokecenter, I ran a diagnostic on the equipment. The equipment used to heal the Pokemon is fully functional and I found no problem with it, you can heal your Pokemon. However, do NOT send any of them to the box. Ever."

"Professor…what's going on? What the hell is all this?"

Oak sighed. "I think we have a pandemic on our hands, one that can jump from Pokemon to people. There are two things not adding up. One, how it manifests itself in humans, and two, why the Pokemon boxes are infected with it."

"Wait…what? Don't the boxes automatically purge diseases when Pokemon enter, so that they won't spread?"

"In most cases, yes," Oak said. "However, Bill monitors the boxes in case of anomalies. Bill didn't catch this one though, and I tried calling him from the center. There's no answer from his house or his new Poketch."

Oak paused. "Kinky…I need you to meet someone at Bill's house for me. I'll contact you over your Poketch as soon as I can. You remember where his house is, right?"

"I do."

"Go there. Be careful. If your Pokemon begin to act out of the ordinary…" He looked around, then pulled out a parcel. "I found this package, it was supposed to be delivered to me. I was allowed to possess it for scientific research."

Oak unwrapped it, and I gasped. It was a hand gun. I had seen them before on a family trip to Unova and had even been allowed to fire one by my uncle there, but to see one in Kanto, it was like I had been shot with it. It was a sign that life as I knew it in Kanto was over.

"Your Pokemon should be able to take down most things with ease. If they start acting strange or become ill, do not hesitate. If this disease is as horrifying for them as it is for humans, you are saving them from horrible death."

I felt sick from the very thought of it. "Oak…I don't think I can…"

Oak placed his hand on my shoulder, and put the gun in my pack. "You will find that you will do many things you did not think you could accomplish," he said, trying to sound soothing but coming out as a depressing old man. "I'm counting on you, Kinky. I have to go to the Pokemon League. They were unaffected by this when I called, and they had already sealed themselves off from the outside. They have the facilities I need there to run tests and determine what this virus is. Travel safe, and may Arceus shine on you."

Oak and his aides took off on their Pokemon. For this first time since I was ten, I wished that I had a nightlight.

.

(Not sure if Oak is OOC or not-I've seen him portrayed in so many varying ways that I have no idea what is canon and what isn't. Also, there is no rival in this fic, because I didn't feel like writing him. BEST LOGIC :V

Current party: Kali the Shroomish, Pecks the Pidgey.)


	3. Tree Hugging

(This one is short so I'm going ahead and uploading it.)

.

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Viridian Forest is an immense, sprawling, tangled wood that lies between Pewter City and Viridian City, acting as a natural barrier dividing the two cities. It's teaming with life, a myriad of bugs lies inside, crawling and infesting the place to the point where you can't walk a step without crushing some unfortunate creature. Yes, it's full of life. And all of that life hates humans and wants them to die.

I've entered Viridian Forest in the past. I've gotten creepy vibes from it, but I always told myself that it was just the atmosphere playing tricks on me. Still, I wouldn't want to set up a summer home there. This time though…I knew there was something different. It wasn't the atmosphere, it wasn't the creatures; the entire forest KNEW I had entered, and it did NOT approve of my entrance. I tried to brush off that feeling, but it wouldn't leave.

There was movement in the grass. Pecks took off from my shoulder, spotting something tasty in the grass I suppose. I watched him dive bomb something, and he came back up empty handed…or would it be taloned? Who knows, he didn't have anything, and wheeled around for a second pass.

Then Pecks promptly dropped to the ground.

"…Pecks?" No peep or rustling. My heart sank…could I have lost a Pokemon already? That couldn't be. I released Kali from her Pokeball.

"Kali, find Pecks, he went that way." I pointed, and Kali waddled into grass and I followed her, careful not to step on anything.

"Mish! Shroomish!" I could see a little mushroom cap bouncing up and down, and bent down. Kali found Pecks, alright. I picked up his still body…and hea a little "snrrt" sound. He was asleep, and snoring.

"Mish!" I looked back to Kali, and found what Pecks had dived at. It was Paras, twitching and covered in yellow dust from Kali. "Well, aren't you a strange looking thing," I chuckled a little as the Paras looked at me curiously, blinking slowly. "I guess you can come along, after all, you did put a number on Pecks, so you can't be half-bad."

I healed Pecks with medicine that I raided from the deserted store in Viridian. He popped up, chirping sleepily. "Pecks, meet Abby, our new Paras. She's not for eating; go find a Caterpie or something."

"Pid," Pecks looked grumpy and flew off in search of lunch. That's when things took a turn towards the insane.

The forest is alive, I think I've pretty much covered that. But it's also a living organism, like the human body. It grows, it breeds, it establishes a symbiotic relationship with the smaller organisms inside it…and when it detects disease, it targets and fights it as well as anything that looks like it, even to the point where it fights off anything that remotely looks like the disease, like an allergic reaction or something. I think Viridian Forest is allergic to humans, but I'm not sure.

The sun was beginning to set, and we only halfway through Viridian Forest. Long shadows were everywhere, framed in orange light like a carved Halloween pumpkin. It was beautifully disconcerting after the previous insanity the day before, but I still told myself that the creepy feeling was my own design.

I'm not used to being wrong this often.

I was leaning against a tree, watching Pecks and Abby share a Caterpie carcass while Kali absorbed her meal from the soil. It was a lazy and sleepy scene, and very comforting. In fact, everything felt right at that moment. It was going to be okay, I told myself that as I sank further and further into the tree.

…Wait, trees aren't supposed to be soft. I tried to sit up, and found that my shoulders were being held down by bark growing over them. I clawed myself free of the bark.

"Pokemon, we're leaving. Like now." I called back Kali to her ball, and was about to call back Abby when I heard a sickening sound a little deeper into the woods. "Abby, Pecks, let's go."

We went deeper, the rustling of the forest growing more agitated as we walked. It didn't take long to find the source of the noise. It was a young bug catcher, one that was in the beginning of the virus judging by the mushrooms sprouting from his body. The tree he was against…it was absorbing him. Bark covered most of his body, except for his head, but it was working on that. He looked at me, big doleful eyes like a damn Paras. I knew what was going to happen, though. I turned away as I heard the sound again.

Louder.

Pronounced.

Squishy.

It sounded like a tube of raw breakfast sausage being squeezed until the meat exploded out both ends. I ran from it. It echoed in my mind and sent my stomach into spasm. Squish.

I wonder if I set a record for fastest crossing ever. I wanted to say that the forest was trying to stop me, the grass pulling at my feet as I ran. Abby and Pecks kept up me as we got the hell out, and I didn't stop until I reached the gate.

Maybe I hallucinated the tree hugging, and the grass, and the carnivorous forest. It's not like Abby or Pecks can tell me anything, no matter how much I ask them. But I still hear that sound every time I think about the forest.

Squish.

.

(Current team: Kali the Shroomish, Pecks the Pidgey, Abby the Paras)


	4. Siren Song

(OOC: Well I kinda forgot I put this Nuzlocke here, so let's put up a couple more chapters.)

I expected a lot of things going into Pewter City. I imagined there would be floating half-rock half-man mutants floating around, waiting to pound the crap out of me and my Pokemon. I anticipated feral Pokemon crawling around everywhere, dripping poisonous and germy bodily fluids just wanting to smear them all over me. I even fantasized about a giant carnivorous blueberry bush jumping out and swallowing me whole. I ran through every horrific option on my journey there, and I was still surprised.

There were no monsters. There were people. Living, breathing, thinking, not-biting people, all hiding behind a gigantic wall meant to keep people like me out.

A guy was up at the top, the wall coming about to his chest. He looked puffed up and smug, like this was the most important thing he had done in his life. It probably was, now that I think about it, the life of an average citizen of Pewter City is probably duller than the rocks that surround the place. Still, he had no right to be looking at me like I was garbage, even though I probably smelled like it.

"Pewter is closed!" He barked. "If you wish to proceed to Mount Moon, find another path!"

"There is no way in HELL I am going back into that forest." I grabbed a Pokeball from my belt. "I'm going through this gate, bro, either with your consent or without it."

"Trainer, your kind is no longer welcome here," he smirked. "You may have ruled Kanto once, but no more. You're diseased, filthy, and your stinking fat asses are not wanted." You can call me many things. Bitch, whore, cunt, I've heard them all. But no one—and I mean NO ONE—calls me fat.

"I see we have reached an impasse. Fine." I clicked the button on the Pokeball. "Face my Pokemon's wrath! Marbles!"

My newest Pokemon appeared…and it sent the guy into hysterical laughter. Figures, everyone always underestimates these guys.

"Sentret!" Marbles squeaked, rearing up on her ringed tail. "Sen!"

"Do you really think you can get in here with THAT?!"

"Quite certain. Marbles, tackle the human!"

Marbles' backed up a few feet. "Well, look at your Sentret, it's afraid of me!"

"Tret!" Marbles took a running start, and did a long, flying tackle into the guy's chest. He was knocked back and off the wall while my Sentret dropped nimbly to the ground, coiling on her tail. She had something in her mouth, and when I took it, I saw it was a keycard. Is that awesome? Yes, it is.

"Good girl, Marbles, you thieving Murkrow-in-disguise." I scratched her head as she purred to me. "Let's see if this works on the gate."

Of course it did, and I was in Pewter City. Aside from the guard on the gate, I must say that it was pretty empty, even for Pewter City standards. They must've been doing something paranoid, like hiding in the museum or some nonsense like that. The Pokemon Center was locked and appeared to be deserted when I looked through the window. A locked door would've stopped most Pokemon trainers, but I wasn't most Pokemon trainers. I took advantage of Pewter City's most abundant resource (useless rocks) and introduced it to the window. The window caved to my request for entry.

I flicked on the lights, happy there was power in the building, and started searching the drawers behind the counter for a guide for the Refresher machine. I went through a bunch of useless junk, including a sheet on how to be a proper Nurse Joy ("Remember the three Cs! Courteous, Concise, Cute!"), until I found the "quick start" guide.

1. Hit the "power on" button. (I smacked it and the machine started with a choking whirr)  
2. Place Pokeballs button down in the refresher tray (Done)  
3. Close cover and initiate the automatic 10-second cycle (Only 10 seconds? It always seemed longer)  
4. Verify no diseases or crippling injuries have been detected. (Nope, none here). In case of detection, offer appropriate treatment to Trainer.  
Here there was something scribbled in the margins, frantically trailing off. "EUTHANIZE ALL POKERUS POKEMON. NO EXPECTIONS." I tucked the guide into my bag and climbed out, heading to the PokeMart to stock up.

A man was in there. He looked like death warmed over, like he had witnessed horror beyond all description, and I instantly felt a connection with him. Here was another person whose life was being rewritten to include Zubatshit insanity.

"What's your name?" I asked, hand on a Pokeball, just in case.

"Terry, you?"

"Kinky."

"Where are you going, Kinky?"

"Cerulean."

Terry turned away from me; I had a bad feeling about the situation. After a couple of seconds, I broke the silence. "Where's the gym leader?"

"Dead. Died going to Mount Moon."

"Sucks."

He looked back at me, and smiled weirdly. "You can't get to Cerulean. The sirens will kill you."

"I don't fear bitches, Terry."

"You will fear the sirens," He said. "They sing unholy death, they send you into everlasting sleep. It almost happened to me." Terry looked me up and down, then continued. "I don't want you here. I've had enough of trainers to last forever. Take whatever Pokemon items you want, money means nothing now."

I began to load up my bag. "And what about the sirens?"

"The sirens…" He grinned and reached under the counter, and handed me syringes filled with a curious liquid. "Nurse Joy made these before she was a siren. They get help you outlast the siren song."

"Why the hell must you be so cryptic?"

"Cryptic?" Terry looked taken aback. "You know nothing, trainer." He paused for a moment, then smirked. "If you try to get past the sirens without using these needles, you die. But if you use too many needles…you die. Either way, you die."

The guy was out of his mind. I still took the syringes and left, wondering what the hell was in them. I was going to find out soon enough.

Fuck Pewter City. I left it behind, not wanting to see any more of these people; I almost preferred the Pokebeasts, because I could kill them. …Wow, maybe I'm starting to lose it too.

This route was a turning point. This was when I knew I had left reality and entered a nightmare, from which there was no waking. The Rattatas, the Weedle-man, even the forest…nothing compared to this. It was as if Arceus went into my head, found what I hated most, and populated this route with them.

The first thing I came across was a corpse, one that I assumed was the gym leader. It was sad, but I didn't see any visible wounds. No bites, no bleeding, nothing that would indicate a struggle. What had it been, then? I thought back to Terry, and what he told me. He said the sirens killed him. But…a siren's song? How could a song kill someone?

"…Oh darn."

I heard it. Loud, painful, grating on my very senses. It dragged itself into my ears and slid down to my brain, clogging my senses with slithering pain. I covered my ears and tried digging the sound out of my head. My ear canals were wet.

"Mother…fucking…JIGGLYPUFFS!"

This wasn't a Jigglypuff. The only reason I'm putting this into words is so I can finally purge the image from my mind forever. She was bloated, gassy gurgling coming from her round belly and in her twisted song, her face a mockery of a human with wide eyes and puffy lips. She had hair, but it was falling out of her head, and when she walked, it was a glide. And dear Arceus, the song…there were words, but they were jumbled together and nonsensical. I think I heard "play," "hiking," "cucumbers," things that made no sense sung in a screechy monotone of hell.

It was making me sleepy, but not like a dreamy sleep. This was drugs, an overdose of drugs being funneled down my ear against my will, such a melodic rape that I never want to feel again. I knew what Terry meant now. If I fell asleep, I was dead.

I pulled out the syringe and jammed it into my arm, feeling it course through my veins. If I was going to die, it would be from this, not from a fucking Jigglypuff.

I plugged my ears, waiting. My eyelids grew so heavy, my head was foggy, dark spots swam everywhere. My heart…my heart…it was pounding. The fog was lifting. I suddenly understood what was in the syringe.

I had just hyped up my system on adrenaline.

And I was tripping balls.

The Jigglypuff looked confused as I sent out Pecks, my faithful Pidgey. "Pecks, tackle!" I watched this next part in slow motion.

Pecks wheeled around in the sky, putting extra power into the blow. The Jigglypuff-girl inhaled, sucking in air to fly off, puffing herself bigger.

Pecks's beak hit her, the point finding little resistance.

Her eyes went wide, and barely a little babble escaped her mouth before it happened.

She. Fucking. EXPLODED.

I have never seen another living thing explode and I never want to see it ever again. I was still high off adrenaline, so I recalled Pecks before he was hit with too much damage, and I bolted. I ran like a Zubat out of hell, my ears ringing with her demise.

More of her kind popped out of the grass, trying to impede me with their song. The only parts I can clearly remember are when I started to drift into nothingness, and then I'd take another syringe and shoot up, and shoot out of there. Maybe that's why her explosion didn't affect me so badly, because I was too high to really register it.

The next thing I remember clearly is waking up in the entryway of Mount Moon next to a pool of vomit. My clothes stank like bile and stuff that I really didn't want to identify. I had two syringes remaining and I tossed them out.

I could hear them in the distance. Screeching, but they were too far away to affect me. I looked at the cave, then back at the field. First thing I was going to do was go into the PokeCenter. After that? Off to the cave. If I could survive that, I can survive anything.

Fuck Jigglypuffs.

(orignal chartatar do not steel!)


	5. Against All Odds

(OOC: If you hit a wall, hit it hard.)

Mt. Moon is long, deep, and penetrating, thick with darkness and Zubats. And for some reason, the smell reminds me of cheese. Maybe it's all the Zubat guano, but there's a distinct cheesy odor there that permeates everything. It's not unpleasant, but certainly distracting.

Have you ever been in a relationship with someone that you knew was going to end? I mean, you try to keep it going despite your gut feeling, and it still ends. Badly.

I had just entered the cave, getting my bearings. Marbles was outside of her ball, sniffing cautiously as we crept forward. There was a general feeling of foreboding in cave that wasn't linked to the guano. Then we heard it.

"BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEE!"

"What the unholy fuck?!" I covered my ears as I looked, and there it was, standing there screaming its floppy-eared head off like a wronged woman.

"MARBLES, TACKLE!"

"Tret!" Marbles hit that Whismur with all her force, and sent the little mutant backwards. I tossed a Pokeball, and three waggles later, Whitney had joined our little team. I let her out of the Pokeball to inspect her, already nursing a headache from her screech. Whitney was kind of shaky, even a little nervous. I think she knew what was coming, what her initial screech had attracted, but she couldn't tell me.

"You'll do, I suppose," I said, tousling her ears. She didn't know what to think of me, and I knew it. "Since you seem to know the cave and have built-in radar, you lead the way."

Whitney looked at me, then shuffled forward, squeaking a little as she waddled.

That was the last I saw her. First second, she was there. Next, there was a huge purple blur with a squeal, and she was gone.

"Whitney!" I ran after the squeals, hearing them grow fainter and fainter as I ran. I clicked on my flashlight, using it to scan everything. Whitney's screams died away, but I didn't need to listen for them to find what had taken her.

It was a disgusting swallowing noise. Smacking, gulping, horrifying thing. It looked straight at me, shooting a horrible, paralyzing glare that left me unable to move.

I was face-to-dick with an eleven foot snake. Not a zombie mutant snake, but a normal, poisonous Arbok that had grown to its full potential, if not a little fat off Whismurs. I cannot stress enough how horrifying it is to be looking at a snake while the snake is looking at you, and you KNOW it's thinking "Hmm…another tasty fleshy thing? Well, I was in the mood for dessert." There's nothing like being thought of as food to get the adrenaline pumping.

I'm not proud of what I did next.

If I moved, I was dead, the Arbok would lunge and I would be joining Whitney. I weighed the consequences in my mind, and I knew what I had to do. I cautiously pressed a Pokeball on my belt.

"Rassssssss."

Abby blinked as she was released, looking at the Arbok. She didn't flinch; I think she was too stupid to know to be afraid of it.

"Abby, do not let this Arbok out of your sight," I prepared to make a dash. "Stun spore!"

"Paraaasssss!" A cloud of yellow dust hit the Arbok's face as I took off. I left my Paras behind to the Arbok. Not because she was capable of defeating it, not because she was a strong fighter, but because I wasn't attached to her. She was an ugly bug, and I simply didn't think of her as a friend like I did my fuzzy Pokemon.

I almost knew Mt. Moon by heart, and I barely had to look around as I ran. I knew I wouldn't have too long before Abby was crushed and the Arbok caught my scent. It had been a few minutes, and I knew I was getting closer to the middle.

PILEDRIVER OUT OF NOWHERE. I was tackled to the ground. "Where do you think you're going?!"

I shone my flashlight into the offender's face and he screeched in pain. He was human, not mutant, his clothes covered in dirt and face ragged and hollow. There was a bright red R on his shirt.

"Don't you fucking stop me, Rocket."

"I'm not one of them! I'm not!" He looked at me pathetically, desperation coloring his features. "I'm alone! The rest of my team is gone…"

"What are you doing here?" I reached into my bag, suspicious of his motives. He was a Rocket. They were gangsters. Criminals and idiots.

"I'm hiding," he squeaked. "The monsters don't want to come in here, they won't find us here."

"Why aren't you in Cerulean? There have to be people there."

"No people, they left," he seemed twitchy, and definitely hungry. I almost felt sympathy for him. "They're running…I should've gone too. Ran. Deserted. But I'm stuck here…can't go outside, monsters will eat me."

"Where are your Pokemon?"

"Most are dead. One got away." His eyes darted around. I bet he was the source of the Arbok. "Can't have them eat me, they'll turn me. I'll be a monster. Don't want to be."

"I see…" I backed away. "Well…have fun being here. Zubats aren't good eating, though. I'll be seeing you."

"You're leaving?!" There was a glint in his eyes. "You can't leave, you're the only human I've seen!"

"Well, I am. Adios."

"NO!" He lunged at me, grabbing my shoulders roughly. "YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME! STAY! YOU'LL BE KILL—"

I whipped the pistol out of my bag and shoved it into his stomach.

Bang.

The world became a ringing bell. Amazingly I didn't trigger a rock slide from the noise, which would've ended this adventure. The Rocket was on the ground, clutching his stomach and shaking. I had shot him. Point blank.

I walked away.

He wasn't going to be following me. No way, no how. But he wasn't going to die quickly; it was going to be slow and painful. His gastric juices were going to poison him, and he would be dead. A human, dead. The thought rang as much as my ears were. He was a Rocket, a criminal. He was responsible for the snake. He was going to die of thirst or starvation. He was insane. It was justifiable.

Was he any more insane than I? He hadn't tried to kill me, just to stop me from walking to death. He was a criminal in a civilized world, but this was no longer civilized. I had shot him. I left him to die. I was going out into the wild, to face monsters of unknown type and origin.

Was I any less sane than he?

My hearing was finally coming back as I saw the exit. I had made it, barely.

Or so I thought.

I heard the thud behind me, and a loud and angry hiss. Mr. Snakey was back, and he was PISSED. I turned around, already a hand on a Pokeball. The Arbok was not amused; he puffed himself up as venom dripped from his eager fangs.

"Kali, go!"

"Miiish!" Kali popped out. She wasn't stupid like Abby, though. She saw that Arbok, and there was fear. The Arbok glared at her, and she was frozen to the spot.

"Kali, Stun Spore!"

She didn't move. She was shaking too badly. The Arbok flicked her away with its tail, and snarled at me. It didn't like plants—it wanted tasty human flesh, and I was about to supply its demand.

"I thought it would be the monsters…not a snake…"

The Arbok opened its jaws…and stiffened. Its eyes went wide, and it dropped like it had been stabbed in the back.

"Rasssss?"

"Abby?!"

Abby was on the back of the Arbok, her little mandibles covered in blood. There was a wound in the back of the Arbok's neck, and it was filled with yellow spores. She never took her eyes off that Arbok.

"Abby…" She skittered over to me, clicking happily. I hugged her, my dopey little mushroom bug. "I'm so sorry, Abby…I never should have left you…I won't leave you again."

I recalled Kali and Abby and beat it out of the cave. The sun had the glow of late afternoon, refreshing warmth on my clammy skin. I walked a least a quarter mile away from the cave before I settled down for a rest, and let my Pokemon out.

Kali, my sweet Shroomish. She wandered off toward a tree and nestled in, drawing nutrients from the soil.

Pecks, my loyal Pidgey. He went off in search of dinner.

Marbles, my fierce Sentret. She rooted around for roots and nuts and things.

And Abby, my faithful Paras. She clicked at me again, and settled next to me, watching for things.

These are my Pokemon. They've been through hell already, and things aren't going to get any better. But all of them, no matter how small, will fight with me to the very end, and this brought me more comfort than anything else.

I flipped open my Poketch and dialed Oak.

"Kinky? You made it?"

"Barely, yeah."

"I'll let my associate know, she'll meet you in Cerulean tomorrow. Stay safe."

"You too, Oak. Goodnight."

(OOC: Remember: 3 minutes is about average for the perfect boiled egg.)


End file.
